Poor shooting dooms upset attempt only 50 miles from Wolverines' den

Mar. 22, 2013

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SDSU's Nate Wolters and Brayden Carlson walk off the court following their 71-56 loss to Michigan in Thursday's NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament at The Palace of Auburn Hills in Auburn Hills, Mich. / Elisha Page / Argus Leader

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AUBURN HILLS, MICH. — Some day, South Dakota State might reach the point where it strikes fear in the hearts of nationally prominent college basketball programs.

That day has not arrived.

It was nowhere to be seen Thursday, amid the pomp and pageantry of the Palace of Auburn Hills, where the Jackrabbits suffered a 71-56 loss to fourth-seeded Michigan to fall to 0-2 all-time in NCAA tournament action.

For the second straight year, the Jacks showed up at the Big Dance hoping to shock the world, only to surprise themselves. This time, it was poor shooting that caught them off guard, with Michigan shooting well and SDSU hitting just 4 of 19 from 3-point range.

A much-ballyhooed battle between star point guards never materialized, as Michigan’s Trey Burke scored just six points and SDSU’s Nate Wolters put up a season-low 10 on 3 of 14 shooting.

“We can’t shoot the ball like we shot it and beat Michigan,” confirmed Jacks coach Scott Nagy, whose team fell to Baylor last year in Albuquerque. “I don’t have the answers to it. People can think it was the big stage or a case of nerves or anything like that, but you never really know for sure.”

No home cooking

Maybe it was the Palace environment, where 19,829 fans — most wearing maize and blue — showed up to watch a talented Michigan team that was ranked No. 1 in the nation earlier this season.

It was a case of basketball karma for the Jacks, who have thrived on their home-court advantage at the Summit League tournament in Sioux Falls, riding a wave of blue and yellow on the way to consecutive titles.

And while Thursday’s crowd certainly didn’t decide the outcome, it made it more difficult for a mid-major team to find the mojo it needs to pull off a miracle.

Remember all that talk about a level playing field in college basketball, with “one and done” realities making brackets more brittle? It didn’t ring true for SDSU or the Summit League.

Ever since Bryce Drew hit his iconic buzzer-beater and led Valparaiso to the Sweet 16 in 1998, teams from the Summit (formerly the Mid-Continent Conference) are 0-16 in NCAA tournament play.

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Worse yet, with Wolters moving on, there’s no guarantee that the Jacks will get many chances in the future. Did they blow their shot, or are mid-majors supposed to be happy with a George Mason or Butler breaking through every few years?

“For South Dakota State to get here two years in a row is very impressive,” Michigan coach John Beilein said. “As a former mid-major coach, I hope people in South Dakota realize how hard that is to do.”

With that reasoning, though, Cinderella would have been happy merely to reach the ball, never hooking up at all with Prince Charming.

There must be a motivation and means to reach the next step, and Nagy believes it’s possible, even with Wolters and senior center Tony Fiegen moving on.

“There’s a part of me that is really excited for next year, just to see our team develop and young players take on different identities,” said Nagy during a somber postgame scene. “It will be interesting to see what they can do.”

Of course, Wolters deserves a ton of credit for pulling the program out of the darkness, and his swan song was supposed to be momentous.

When the brackets emerged last Sunday, however, a sinking feeling set in. The Jacks would face the Wolverines at the Palace, an aging but vital NBA facility about 50 miles from Michigan’s Ann Arbor campus.

When SDSU players took the floor in their black alternate jerseys Thursday and were met with hearty boos from the Michigan mob, it was clear that they were a long way from the Sioux Falls Arena.

Spartan supporters

The possible saving grace was that Michigan State also drew a Palace assignment, allowing Spartan supporters to adopt the underdog Jackrabbits and cheer against the rival Wolverines.

One of them was Steven Johnson of Lansing, a hospital administrator who walked through the Palace concourse before the game with an SDSU shirt underneath his Michigan State jacket.

“I heard that Spartan fans were jumping on the Jackrabbit bandwagon, and I thought it was a good time to support South Dakota State,” Johnson said.

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He paid $25 for the shirt at a nearby souvenir stand, saying that he “got at least 25 dollars worth of high-fives coming out of the MSU section with this thing on.”

Sitting directly behind press row was Michigan State fan Mark Bordelove, who joined his friend in cheering loudly for the Jacks despite being surrounded by maize-and-blue zealots and near-constant renditions of “The Victors.”

“We’re with the Jackrabbits 100 percent,” said Bordelove, who still chose to wear green rather than blue and yellow. “A player like Nate Wolters seems like a guy you can really get behind, plus we want to get rid of the Wolverines.”

Tony Fiegen’s father, Ed, said he and other members of Jackrabbit Nation felt some of that support in Auburn Hills in the hours leading up to the game.

“During the pregame rally and walking into arena, anyone who was wearing green was shouting, ‘Go Rabbits!’ – so that felt pretty good,” said the proud father, sitting courtside with fellow SDSU rooters.

In the end, though, we all knew it would come down to how the Jacks fared on the court, not in the stands. Just as Nagy pointed out this week that talent supersedes experience, so too does execution trump emotion.

The Wolverines are a better team than SDSU, which made it easier to seize the moment. When the talent level in Brookings starts to mirror that of top-tier programs that stand in the way, miracles won’t be necessary.

Until then, Cinderella will have to be content with reaching the Big Dance and taking a twirl, then turning on her heels to head for the door.